Convenience Store

Convenience Store 2022

4.80

Mukhabbat, an Uzbek immigrant, works at a convenience store on the outskirts of Moscow. Just like the rest of the immigrants at the store, she is forced to work without getting paid and endure mental and physical abuse, until she overcomes her fear one day and takes her fate into her own hands.

2022

Panoh

Panoh 2007

1

A wealthy man hires two bodyguards, one a former paratrooper (Qodirov) and the other just released from prison (Soipov), to protect his two daughters, Gulnoza (Ashurboeva) and Dilnoza (Eshonqulova). Whilst at first the girls are reluctant to accept their fate, they soon realise how lucky they are to have the two young men in their lives…

2007

The Mischievous Boy

The Mischievous Boy 1978

6.30

The Mischievous Boy — "Shum bola", a film on the eponymous story of Gafur Gulyam about the adventures of a little boy, whose restless character makes him different people and life situations.

1978

Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg

Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg 1992

5.60

Considering that Musakov’s Abdulladzhan (1991) was dedicated to Steven Spielberg, we might suggest that these four boys embody nothing more complicated than a conflict of youthful innocence with some ominous threat—the basic workings of E.T. (1982) or War of the Worlds (2005), say. That threat, however, is best understood not through vague nationalism or warmed-over socialism, but through the other reference-point of Abdulladzhan—Tarkovskii’s Stalker (1980). Musakov leaves his boys in a simplified radiance so bright and so overexposed that it no longer looks like the skies of sunny Tashkent, but a disturbing, borderless luminosity to match the flat tonal range of Stalker’s “Zone.” Our Uzbek boys are nowhere in particular; this is a broader domain than anything international.

1992

40 Days of Silence

40 Days of Silence 2014

8.00

This is a passage between two faces, each the same, yet different. Bibicha’s face first appears in the dark, her eyes open and expression impassive, only her heavy breathing betraying the strain she feels. She will withstand the strain and take the vow of silence, retreating to her grandmother’s house for the 40 days to pass. The house and the landscape outside at least offer Bibicha certain sensory distractions: the taste of honey, the texture of a wall, an eye-catching bedspread, the view out over a sea of cloud, water fizzling on the stove. But it is not just her under strain, as her aunt’s frantic text messaging, her grandmother’s rueful acknowledgement of the stories of marital strife on the radio and her little cousin’s illegitimate status bear witness to. Four generations of women in the complete absence of men, yet all marked by their presence, the similarity of their fates blurring together different times and customs.

2014

Only the Devil Lives Without Hope

Only the Devil Lives Without Hope 2020

8.70

In Uzbekistan, the government has started its own war on terror. A war that – like so many others – is waged for political reasons, which rarely have anything to do with reality. As a result, thousands of Muslims are imprisoned on false charges of conspiring to commit terrorist crimes. One of them is the human rights activist Dilya's brother Iskandar, who has been imprisoned in the notorious Jaslyk prison in a barren desert since 2002 – an inhumane place of which there are no images. Today, she lives in exile in Sweden because of the threats and harassment, but Dilya continues to fight the case of her brother and other prisoners with the help of Amnesty International.

2020

Who Are You?

Who Are You? 1990

3.00

A young doctor serving cotton growers goes to the city. On the highway, when trying to overtake a motorcade, the traffic police stops the car. The events that take place next are an accurate and witty model of a life permeated through and through with absurd relationships, ridiculous demands and inexplicable prohibitions...

1990

Sunday

Sunday 2023

1

The film tells the story of an elderly couple living a peaceful life in a village, with their eldest son living nearby and their youngest son working abroad. It depicts the struggle and conflict between two generations.

2023

Aral, Fishing in an Invisible Sea

Aral, Fishing in an Invisible Sea 2004

7.20

A documentary film about the three remaining generations of fishermen in the Aral Sea-- Their everyday struggle to survive in one of the most dire and inhospitable places on the planet.

2004

Scorpion

Scorpion 2018

7.50

An agent of the Uzbek special services, Timur Saliev, is conducting an operation to seize the Scorpion terrorist group when he learns that his brother, whom he considered dead, is alive and belongs to this very organization.

2018

Aralkum

Aralkum 2022

6.00

The Aral “Sea” powerfully reveals the deadly impact of human activities—in this case, the intensive cultivation of cotton in the USSR—on an ecosystem. Daniel Asadi Faezi (The Absence of Apricots, VdR 2018) and Mila Zhluktenko (Find Fix Finish, VdR 2017) film the shore’s last inhabitants, who have lost their way of life to the desertification of their environment. A beautiful and poignant work about our probable future.

2022

Fatima and Zukhra

Fatima and Zukhra 2005

5.00

Since Fatima and Zuhra's brother did not come home one day, Fatima is worried and goes outside to look for him. Then, the street thugs kidnap and rape Fatima. Fatima commits suicide.

2005

Super Daughter-in-Law

Super Daughter-in-Law 2008

6.00

The 'super kelinchak' has found her place as a wife and mother yet is as feisty as the mother-in-law who taught her how to become the perfect daughter-in- law...

2008

Bygone Days

Bygone Days 1970

1

Two lovers are torn apart by the violence occurring among the feudal lords in early 19th century Tashkent.

1970

Little People

Little People 2007

1

Gaziboy wins the car in the lottery. He takes a lot of money from his father and goes to town.

2007

2000 Songs of Farida

2000 Songs of Farida 2020

1

Kamil’s peaceful life with his three wives in the remote region of Turkestan is disrupted when the fourth wife arrives. Changes simultaneously rush at a family that seem far from a historical upheaval that destroys long-standing family traditions.

2020

The Quiet One

The Quiet One 1987

1

Schoolgirl Nodira, quiet and dreamy, attracts attention by inventing a heroic act that she allegedly committed while saving a child from under the wheels of a car...

1987

Twins

Twins 2004

7.50

In the cities of Central Asia and Russia, the indomitable Fatima barrages , committing one crime after another . The Prosecutor's office investigator Pyotr Yerozhin gets in her way , not yet knowing how this investigation will be closely intertwined with his own fate.

2004